


Changing All The Rules

by CrystalHopeDragon



Series: Days with Danny [20]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29601900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalHopeDragon/pseuds/CrystalHopeDragon
Summary: The new president of the United States is finally ready to talk to the King of the Dead. Danny is nervous, but can’t avoid this. He has a new change he needs to put in place, after all.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson
Series: Days with Danny [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/453040
Comments: 15
Kudos: 67





	Changing All The Rules

**Author's Note:**

> Note: All U.S. presidents in this are fictional and nameless for a reason. I am not touching on my political opinions in my happy place. The recent election just reminded me that since our president changes, so could the situation around ghosts when one does.

Danny adjusted his tie one more time, exhaling a breath to calm down. Today was...a big day. The president of the United States wanted to have a word with him. The new one, that is. 

The old one and his cabinet and congress had been so caught up debating the situation that in the two years since he’d become king he hadn’t gotten more than a couple comments in during press conferences. The new one though was going with a more direct approach, and as such he had a personal invite to the Oval Office. He’d asked if he could bring a plus one, and the president had assured him that she’d have her own allies present, so there was no reason Danny couldn’t do the same. So with one last glance at the mirror, Danny stepped out of his bedroom in the castle to the sight of his beautiful fiancé waiting on him, already dressed to the nines.

Danny was going with the king outfit she’d designed for him, but she herself needed an outfit as well now, as the future queen and all that. So there she stood in a full floor length black dress with purple accents, and green magic lines running along it in a vine pattern that went across not just the dress but her face as well, carefully hiding pieces and acting like a partial mask in case they decided to run her through a facial recognition scanner. They were most likely outing themselves today if things went well, but better safe then sorry. 

Still, it was the first time he was seeing this dress on her, and his breath caught.

“You look amazing.” He intoned, awestruck. She snickered, grabbing his arm. 

“You look great too, hun. Now if you’re done preening in front of the mirror, we gotta get going. The kids been waiting forever.” 

Sure enough, in the front lobby stood Kepler, fully dressed in a plain black tux with green accents to match his parents powers. He was barely holding in the nervous excitement, pacing around, and Danny couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sure you want to come kiddo?” He asked, grinning softly.

“Well duh!” Kepler said, spinning to him in excitement. “How often does a kid get to meet the president?” 

Danny grinned. “As often as needed when the worlds in danger.”

Kepler pouted. “Well it’s not in danger right this minute, and I want to meet her. What better way to figure out how the government works then to see it, right?”

Sam just rolled her eyes. “Not quite, but worth a try. Trust me kiddo, you’ll never see how it really works unless they want you to.” She said as she ruffled his hair. Kepler just pouted, more focused on fixing his hair than arguing political corruptness. 

So with that argument temporarily halted Danny opened a portal to directly in front of the White House. 

———

As the three of them stepped out, the crowds were already waiting. Danny’s nerves, which had just started to settle, came back tenfold as he marched towards the White House, Sam on his arm and their little one holding his hand. There were reporters and questions being thrown at them left and right, but he just smiled politely and marched forwards, being admitted peacefully past the gates and heading towards the main entrance. Inside the entrance, in the main hall, stood his goal. 

“Mr. Phantom, welcome! It is our honor and privileged to host the king of the dead!” Said the new president, stepping forward to shake his hand. Sam stepped away so he could use his right hand, while his son clutched his left tighter, staring up at the woman with wide eyes. 

“It’s an honor to be here.” He says with a beaming smile, putting on the best front he could muster to hide his nerves. This was really fucking important, he couldn’t afford a mistake. Things would get messy if there was a mistake.

“And this charming young lady is?” She asked, turning towards Sam.

“His Fiancé, call me Mirage.” She responded, sticking her hand out for a shake as well. “And this here is our eldest, Kepler.” 

The president shook it before glancing at the boy. “So you all really did keep the children from the trial.” 

Danny raised an eyebrow. “Of course. We said we would, didn’t we? He was insistent on coming today. He keeps insisting he wants to go into human politics when older.” Sam rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut. This wasn’t the time for their usual argument on how much of a waste of time human politics were, nor how corrupt and disgusting. They could resume it later at home. Danny generally stayed out of it, both the discussion and human politics, but this was a part he couldn’t avoid. 

“A worthy endeavor. It’s a pleasure to meet you young man.” She said, bending slightly to shake his hand. He did so while beaming at her, delighted at being addressed. 

“You as well ma’am.”

With that they migrating to the Oval Office, with a small portion of her staff and a single reporter. 

“Are you fine with this being recorded?” The president asked as she sat. 

“Of course.” Danny responded with a shrug, sitting as well. “The whole purpose of this is to make peace with humans, the more that see our intentions the better.” Everyone else found their places as well and the meeting began.

“So tell me, why are you all here? Ghosts haven’t been a common thing after all, not until you took the throne. So please, explain why we have such a large, sudden migration?” She asks, folding her hands on her desk. 

Danny leaned forward as well, putting his elbows on his knees with a sigh. He rubbed one hand over his face before looking at her directly. “Did you know the rules of death aren’t concrete?” 

She blinked in surprise, taken aback. “No, I didn’t.”

He leans back with a sigh. “Turns out they’re not. How they work is up to the current king of ghosts, which I only found out recently myself.” He snorted, looking at her again. “I took this title to try and keep peace in the ghost zone, just to find out I now have control over life and death. Interesting, right?” She was turning ashen, suddenly terrified as she realized exactly what she was talking to. Everyone in the room excluding the royal family was shaking in fear. Danny continued on, nonplused. “So, the rule about people aging? Has only been in place for like, 30 thousand years. Before that the only way to die was to be killed. You could still drown, starve, get sick, get stabbed and all that, but dying of old age wasn’t a thing, and the body didn’t degrade as heavily with age back then. The king two before me was the asshole who came up with that this time, the whole aging to death thing. He wanted more dominion, so came up with more ways to die. He ruled until the dick who took over four hundred years ago beat him, and that guy was pure chaos so of course he didn’t think to change it. I’m changing it back.” Danny said with a grin, smiling at them. They were all still shaking though, terrified, so he awkwardly powered on. 

“I know what it’s like to fear death, I’ve only been dead a short while myself. So I’m taking out one of the biggest factors. I’m changing things back to how they used to be, how they’ve been on and off through our universe’s history. But I want a bigger change. Most kings don’t want to deal with a lot of work. They figure out the base rules and then fuck off to do whatever they want. I’m not doing that. I realized how much power I have, and I’m using it.” He looked her dead in the eye. “I’m changing the rules of death. I’m making permanent portals, one planet at a time, starting with Earth. The dead don’t have to stay in the land of the dead, and as far as I know that’s never been a thing. It’s a lot of work to keep track of subjects that can go through worlds, so most kings don’t bother. They keep them trapped. I won’t. I’m setting up a government, a real one, to organize this. One at a time, I’m figuring out the rules for this fancy ass system we’re going to need. I’m changing death, and as long as I have the throne, it will stay my way.” He finished with.

The room was still, frozen for a while after his speech. He just sat there and exhaled, relaxing back. Trying to feign nonchalance, but the tension in his body was palpable. 

“We don’t have to die.” The president finally muttered, dawning realization battering her with shock. “You’re changing everything.” She stares at him in awe, questions slowly forming. “Why here though? Why Earth?”

He shrugged. “I’m from Earth, from the U.S. actually. Thought I might as well start close to home. Figure out how the new system would work in a nation I actually know the rules of before I try to expand out. Things are gonna be...weird from now on.” He looked awkwardly aside. “No ones gonna die anymore. Tyrants could keep a throne forever. Criminals won’t die of old age. If you sentence them to 300 years for their crimes, they’ll actually serve that unless executed. If executed, they’re now my problem. We need to figure out how to handle this, and I’ll be honest, I’ve no idea. This is gonna take time, a lot more then I’ve lived. I’ve only got 18 years of experience to play with here, I need all the help I can get.” 

“18 years since you died?” She asked, confused. That’s pretty young for a ghost from what she’d been told, he really did take power early.

He barks a laugh at that. “Ha! No, afraid not. 18 years since I was born, as a human. I’ve only been dead for 4.” 

Her eyes widen as she glances them all over suddenly. The young regal looking lady takes a different appearance at that, as does the king. These are teenagers. Barely adults. With the literal weight of the universe on their shoulders. 

“So what do you need from us?” She asks, settling in. If these kids can stay strong under that pressure, stay strong being the new King and Queen of death, then she can stay strong when facing them. 

“Cooperation, preferably. We need to figure out laws and systems regarding how the dead interact with the living. If you all never have to die, I’m going to get a lot less subjects in the future. Or at least it will take longer for one to get to me. So my current subjects are going to want to visit their loved ones even more, since you won’t be joining us for a while. Not to mention you need to figure out rules in terms of wealth and government positions when people don’t die. I recommend term limits.” He pitches in with a chuckle. 

“I’d like my little ones to go to human schools as well, once they start presenting as the age needed for schooling. We need to figure out how that would work if you’ll allow it, and if you won’t I plan to argue it. At the very least we need to put in a separate class or something for ghost kids, but I’d like to avoid segregation if at all possible. They’re still kids, they will age, it’s going to happen slower if they have no reason to though. Being surrounded by kids who feel the same age as them will encourage them to grow with them.” He throws in, though how aging works for ghosts is something they are all trying to process. 

She pauses, realizing something, glancing at Kepler. “You took in six kids at 18.” 

He shrugs. “We make do. There’s five of us playing primary guardians, and a slew of friends and allies pitching in. It’s...not easy, but we find ways.”

She rubs her hands down her face. “We’ll need to think on this, figure out an appropriate public response before we give you a straight answer. In all honesty though?” She stood up, putting her hand out. “I look forward to working with you in some way in the future. I highly doubt we are going to refuse to cooperate at all, given what you’re gifting us with Mr. Phantom.” 

Danny grinned, standing up as well. He stood up and shook her hand, de-powering as he did. She stared at him in stunned silence as Sam followed his cue. “Call me Danny, I feel a little young to be called mister.”

Kepler snorted at that. “Yet dad is alright.” 

He grinned, looking back. “Of course dad is alright, I am one now.” 

Kepler blushed, looking away, but didn’t argue. 

“You are-“ The president started, once again in awe. 

“A halfa.” He pitched in. “Just like my sister, and one of my children. And Vlad.” He cringed at the name. “I mainly live in the ghost zone now, but it’s about time I admit this to the world. Might make people a little more comfortable with my playing death god if they realize I still know what it’s like to fear death. Or not, might make them less comfortable to know a teenagers in charge, eh. Worth a try.” He says with a shrug. “I’m Danny Fenton, this is my fiancé Sam Mason.” 

“I’m not dead.” She pitched in, still sitting.

Danny nodded. “We have ways to give her power without her needing to be.”

“You’re the ghost hunters kid.” She realized.

He grinned. “Ironic, right?” He turned to leave, letting a portal appear behind him. “Call me whenever you reach a decision. It was great meeting you.”

“You too.” She responded, still shocked, as the portal closed behind the three.

With those two in charge, she had a feeling the world was never going to be the same. She hoped that was a good thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, yes I did end death. Fuck the rules of the universe, I want an actual happily ever after! Grim’s job just got a lot easier again.


End file.
